The Centre approval to India's manned mission to space finds expression in the Union Budget.

The Indian Space Research Organisation's "pre-project initiatives" to propel an Indian into space have been sanctioned Rs 50 crore for 2007-08.

Top ISRO sources said the flight is likely to be in 2015, followed by an Indian stepping on the Moon in 2020. An orbiter to Mars in 2014 is also among the ISRO's initiatives during the 11th five-year plan.

ISRO's intention to hoist an Indian into space was first reported by the HT on November 2, 2006. ISRO formally unveiled its plans for the manned space flight at its headquarters in Bangalore on November 7.

The budget for such a mission will be about Rs 10,000 crore, spread over eight years, sources said. The funds will enable construction of new facilities to develop technologies and train people to endure zero gravity.

The ISRO will also list the R&D organisations, like the Institute of Aerospace Medicine, National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL), Defence Food Research Laboratory (DFRL) and medical research institutes, which will be involved in the mission.

The space agency plans to send a GSLV-MK II (Mark two with an indigenous cryogenic engine) rocket from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, with a three-ton space capsule (two people onboard, complete with life support systems etc).

About 16 minutes after lift-off, the rocket will inject the capsule into an orbit, 300 km-400 km from the earth. The capsule would orbit the earth and return for a splashdown in the Bay of Bengal.

The Moon voyage will entail a mission of longer duration with the capsule taking about five days to reach its destination after the GSLV rocket injects it into space. Sources said the Centre had hiked ISRO's annual budget by 30 per cent, from Rs 2, 997 crore in 2006-07 to Rs 3, 858 crore in 2007-08.

For the first time ever, Finance Minister P Chidambaram has allocated Rs 50 crore for ISRO's manned space initiatives in an indication that India is very serious about its manned space faring ambitions.

If all goes according to plan, a 50 metre tall and more than 400 tonne rocket will put an Indian in space.

The Geostationary Launch Vehicle is being fine tuned by ISRO for India's first manned space flight, possibly in 2014 from Sriharikota.

The new national effort was announced by the Finance Minister in his budget speech.

ISRO is also developing a fully autonomous orbital vehicle to carry a two-member crew into a low Earth orbit.

Crew module

The mission, which will place India in the league of Russia, USA and China, is estimated to cost about Rs 10,000 crore but will be a boon for the domestic industry.

"We have carried out a detailed feasibility study of carrying humans into orbit and bringing them back using existing vehicles. We feel by using the GSLV Mark II it is possible to undertake this mission but a lot more technology has to be developed. This is quite exciting and challenging for our youngsters who are joining and hopefully we feel we will be able to do it by 2014," said B N Suresh, Director, Vikram Sarabhai Space Center, Thiruvananthapuram.

Work has begun at the highly guarded facilities at Thiruvananthapuram. NDTV was shown the first drawings of the crew module and the escape vehicle if something goes wrong in the manned flight.

It is the life support system that will take most development.

Hardware like heat resistant tiles to protect astronauts on the return to Earth have already been developed and the success of the satellite recovery experiment earlier this month demonstrated India's capability in re-entry technology.

Finally a capsule six times heavier will take Indians into space.

A new race to space has begun with India and China vying to find their place. All what happens at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre will decide how soon and how fast India moves in this demanding area.

"NDTV was shown the first drawings of the crew module and the escape vehicle "

I have looked everywhere for this image... any clue where it can be found ?

No idea but just because they were shown them doesn't mean that they are online, yet. The already retrieved Space Capsule Recovery Experiment (SCRE or more commonly SRE or SRE-1) looked like the old corona capsules or t/spaces CXV but obviously much smaller.

manned mission to earth's satellite in 2014, landing on Mars in 2020 and perhaps colonisation of the red planet later. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Hyderabad/Living_on_Mars_possible/articleshow/1690309.cms"The day time temperatures are about 20 degrees Celsius though night time temperatures are low. We should be able to build an atmosphere without much problem. Then, we could send half our population there," said Physical Research Laboratory council chairman and former Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) chief Prof U R Rao on Monday.